Azmar application junked

Negotiations have failed to broker an agreement between the Marianas Public Lands Authority and Azmar International, resulting in a unanimous vote by the MPLA board of directors yesterday to reject Azmar’s application to mine Pagan pozzolan.

At yesterday’s meeting, MPLA board members took turns stating how much they wanted Azmar’s mining project to materialize. However, they said they could not support the company’s application on grounds of Azmar’s failure or apparent refusal to provide necessary documents regarding its financial standing.

On Nov. 16, the board authorized the MPLA management to open 15 days of negotiations with Azmar based on a draft temporary mining permit, which included a long list of documents required from the permit applicant.

MPLA attorney Alan Lane reported that the proposed permit was sent to Azmar to initiate negotiations. However, Azmar sent back a drastically different draft, making substantial changes to the proposal and striking out about 90 percent of the items on the list.

Lane said that even MPLA’s request for a police clearance was stricken out.

“It’s always been the intent of the board to work with Azmar and make Pagan mining a reality. But what we have heard today just doesn’t support an affirmative decision,” said MPLA chair Ana Demapan-Castro.

MPLA vice chair Manuel Villagomez said he welcomes any proposal to develop new sources of revenues for the Commonwealth. He expressed concern, however, about MPLA’s lack of sufficient background information about Azmar.

“Based on Azmar’s submission, it shows that they don’t want to disclose a lot of things about [their] financial status and the nature of the corporation,” Villagomez said.

The three other board members—Nicolas Nekai, Benita Manglona, and Felix Sasamoto—expressed the same concerns about Azmar’s application.

Asked for his comment, Azmar public information officer Don Farrell said the meeting was one week premature.

“The 15 days given for negotiations following the last board meeting should have been 15 working days, not 15 calendar days. There was a weekend immediately following the meeting, then the Thanksgiving holiday, followed by another weekend,” Farrell said.

He also questioned MPLA’s conduct in the negotiations, noting the agency’s failure to make an effort to further negotiate the counter-proposal submitted by Azmar.

“The board faxed their 22-page draft to [Azmar attorney Jeffrey] Finley the day after the meeting. That was one day. We responded with our counter-proposal within seven working days, that being this Tuesday morning. We anticipated a response from MPLA with their concerns,” Farrell said. “Instead, we received no message from MPLA that they were working on calendar days and they were calling a meeting to take action with no further negotiations. What kind of negotiation is that?”

He, however, refused to comment on the draft, as he signed a confidentiality statement obligating him not to talk about it. He said he believes the negotiation period has not yet expired.

Azmar president Ken Moore and Finley will be contacting Lane immediately to discuss the situation, he added.

For its part, the watchdog group PaganWatch expressed appreciation of the board’s decision.

“We congratulate the MPLA board for recognizing the public’s wishes and their fiduciary responsibility to the Commonwealth. We welcome investors to the CNMI, but we also make sure that those we accept are real investors. Those are two different things,” said PaganWatch leader Cinta Kaipat.